Mother
Character Analysis

Gregor's mother, like Gregor's father, is elderly and sick (she has asthma), but she also returns to work, as an underwear seamstress, when he transforms. Her attitude towards Gregor is both horrified and loving: she faints when she first sees him, and later has an asthma attack after Grete's violin concert, but also she wants to help tidy and clean Gregor's room, and when his father attacks Gregor with apples, she pleads for Gregor's life.

Mother Quotes in The Metamorphosis

The The Metamorphosis quotes below are all either spoken by Mother or refer to Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

).
Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Schocken Books edition of The Metamorphosis published in 1995.

Section 2
Quotes

"What a quiet life our family has been leading," said Gregor to himself, and as he sat there motionless staring into the darkness he felt great pride in the fact that he had been able to provide such a life for his parents and sister in such a fine flat. But what if all the quiet, the comfort, the contentment were now to end in horror?

...family. Grete and Gregor's father tell Gregor that the clerk has arrived. Gregor hears his mother defending him to the clerk, saying that Gregor is always dutiful and singularly focused on...
(full context)

...doesn't understand Gregor's speech, and exclaims that a human couldn't have made such noises. Gregor's mother begins to cry, along with Grete, and calls for a doctor. In all the hubbub,...
(full context)

Gregor finally gets the door open, shocking the Chief Clerk, his father and mother. His father weeps. Gregor stays halfway in his room, noticing the rainy weather, the breakfast...
(full context)

...many legs, which he finds much more comfortable. Gregor underestimates the alarm he's causing his mother and the clerk, only noticing that his mother has spilled the coffee and that the...
(full context)

Section 2

Grete covertly feeds Gregor again in the afternoon, when their father, mother, and the servant girl won't notice. Gregor isn't sure why his family didn't ever bring...
(full context)

...father decides that he must go back to work, as old as he is. Gregor's mother seems too old and unhealthy, and Grete is only 17. Gregor feels "shame and grief"...
(full context)

Gregor's mother and father don't enter with Grete but they are curious about him. After two months,...
(full context)

Grete disagrees with Gregor's mother and they work to remove the chest. Gregor feels agitated by all the movement in...
(full context)

Grete returns, sees Gregor on the wall, and attempts to get their mother from the room without her noticing. However, Gregor's mother looks up, screams, and faints. Grete...
(full context)

...back and gets embedded, causing Gregor massive pain. Gregor notices, as he passes out, his mother running out of his room, half-undressed because of her fainting fit earlier, and begging Gregor's...
(full context)

Section 3

...quiet, as all three family members are now employed, Grete as a salesgirl and Gregor's mother at an underwear manufacturer. Gregor's father is constantly exhausted, won't even remove his increasingly dirty...
(full context)

Gregor understands that the stresses on his family have made Grete, his mother and father less attentive to him. His family members spend all day working for other...
(full context)

...wants to be the only one to take care of Gregor, and fights with their mother for sometimes trying to help him.
(full context)

...though he enjoys climbing around the junk. Gregor longingly notices the care with which his mother and Grete feed the lodgers, and the attention that his father lavishes upon them.
(full context)

...violin. The lodgers ask her to come play for them in the living room. Gregor's mother and father awkwardly and formally come to watch as well.
(full context)

...the family, and that he might sue. The other lodgers follow suit. Gregor's father and mother are extremely upset, and Gregor's mother drops the violin. Gregor stays still on the floor.
(full context)

...then she calls to the family. Grete notes how thin Gregor had become. Grete, her mother and father go to the parents' room.
(full context)

Grete, her mother and father all write to their bosses to take work off for the day. The...
(full context)

Grete, her mother and father leave the house and take the tram to the countryside. They talk optimistically...
(full context)